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Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

It’s after a soft, pattering rain, with the clouds clearing and the sun streaming through, that the essence of the Western landscape rises up. The pungent scent of sagebrush is wicked up by the moist air, mingling with the sweet aroma of pine.

The country's first National Historic Site celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this month, and the occasion offers the opportunity for some fun challenges for NPS trivia buffs. Can you identify the NPS area claiming this historic "first"? How about the location of America's first National Battlefield, or the former national park that's now a national monument?

Earlier this year we ran a story by former Park Service historian Richard West Sellars that examined how fully the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site recounts the history of the 19th Century Indian Wars. The following article from Robert Pahre takes a broader look at how the National Park Service interprets Native American history.

The battle popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand," and now also recognized as the last stand of the Plains Indians, was fought in southeastern Montana on June 25-26, 1876. Here are some highlight statistics for Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and the battle it commemorates.

Sometime this summer a truck, or trucks, loaded with artifacts and papers at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, will be sent south all the way to Tucson, Arizona, a journey designed for safekeeping until the monument can build a proper curatorial facility.

This week’s quiz will find out how much you know about archeological research and the remains of past human life and culture in our national parks. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we’ll make you write on the whiteboard 100 times: “Archeology derives from the Greek ἀρχαιολογία, archaiologia – ἀρχαῖος, archaīos and -λογία, -logia.”

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument offers a prime example of re-imaging in NPS context. Custer’s Last Stand occurred at this place, but so did the last stand of the Plains Indians. In 1991, a landmark redesignation acknowledged that the battlefield has a duel identity. More recently, an Indian Memorial has helped to re-image the place as hallowed ground for Indians as well as whites.